Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) whose father, a former High Court judge together with three others were abducted and gruesomely murdered some 31 years ago, has visited the graveside to pay tribute to the departed judge.
He was at the Osu Cemetery with his surviving mother Mrs Comfort Agyepong, together with his siblings and other family members.
He told Daily Guide that there was no way the family could �reverse� history but said �we can learn from this tragedy.�
�It is time for a sober reflection as a nation. We should all learn to forgive although we may not be able to forget what really happened.�
He said his father and his colleagues �paid the ultimate sacrifice because they wanted to stand true to the ideals of rule of law.�
Mr Agyepong who was once Press Secretary to President Kufuor also paid glowing tribute to the late Chief Justice George Kingsley Acquah, during whose tenure �the memory of my father and his colleagues were immortalized as martyrs at the forecourt of the Supreme Court building in Accra.�
Thirty one years ago, on June 30, 1982, three High Court judges- Justices Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, Fred Poku Sarkodee and Cecilia Afran Koranteng-Addow, who was said to be breastfeeding a baby� together with a retired Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah, were abducted at night during curfew hours. Their bodies were on July 1, 1982 found in a state of decomposition at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains.
Their bodies had been doused with petrol and set on fire but divine intervention, through raindrops that night, quenched the burning bodies before they were discovered.
The PNDC, publicly declaring itself to be horrified by the crime, and yielding to strong public pressure, appointed a Special Investigation Board (SIB) with a former Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, as chairman, to investigate the murders.
The inquiry is noted for the courage and professional expertise of its main investigator, J.J. Yidana, an officer of the Ghana Police Service. The SIB submitted its report and was published along with a Government White Paper.
The SIB made a number of findings leading to the prosecution of Joachim Amartey Kwei, a member of the PNDC, L/Cpls Samuel Amedeka, Samuel Michael Senyah, Johnny Dzandu, an ex-soldier and Tekpor, also an ex-soldier.
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